


At the Quidditch

by meletes_muse



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/F, Harry Potter AU, MinisterforMagic!Helen, Professor!Benoit, Quidditch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-15 07:30:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11801355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meletes_muse/pseuds/meletes_muse
Summary: On a visit to Hogwarts, Minister for Magic Helen Magnus meets the young Potions' Professor Charlotte Benoit.





	At the Quidditch

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Sanctuary or Harry Potter.
> 
> After reading DownToTheSea's wonderful Teslen Harry Potter AU on here, I was inspired to write a Helen/Charlotte Hogwarts fic. In this AU, Helen is Minister for Magic and Charlotte is Professor of Potions. Helen is slightly older than in Sanctuary canon (late forties), and Charlotte is slightly younger (early thirties). Oh, and everyone is mortal.

Helen applauds politely as the Slytherin quidditch team complete their introductory lap of the stadium. It’s remarkable, she thinks, how old habits die hard. Gryffindor’s Ashley’s house, not Helen’s, but even if her daughter weren’t on the Gryffindor team she’d still be supporting them. Discreetly, of course. It wouldn’t do for the Minister for Magic to be too partisan. Still, her own blue and bronze scarf is looped proudly around her neck, and she cheers loudly when Ashley is introduced.

“Do you play quidditch, Professor?” she asks the young woman seated next to her. Helen knows all about Charlotte Benoit, of course. She’s a rather brilliant potion-maker. One of the best of her generation.

Charlotte shakes her head, smiling. “Only in the back garden with my niece and nephew.”

“Ah,” Helen returns her smile, “a witch after my own heart.”

The younger woman looks surprised, and Helen watches as her gaze flits over to Ashley, who, much to the crowd’s delight, is doing a series of loop-the-loops.

“Ashley takes after her father,” Helen explains.

“ _Ashley_ ,” Minerva chimes in from Helen’s other side, “is lucky that Pomona wants Slytherin to lose just as much as the rest of us. Otherwise she’d be out in the greenhouses repotting Mandrakes.”

Helen sighs. She’s already been apprised of Ashley’s latest bout of rule-breaking. She’s at a bit of a loss, really. Until Ashley came along, Helen had always taken everything in her stride. But parenting is hard, and teenagers can be utterly confounding sometimes.

The Headmistress gives her an arch look, a look that says, _you reap what you sow_. Helen knows her former Transfiguration professor is more fondly exasperated than angry, but she doesn’t doubt that Ashley can be a handful. 

Helen can see John out of the corner of her eye, smiling faintly. His attention appears to be on the game, but she knows he’s listening. If anyone’s to blame for her past misdeeds it’s John Druitt. Now John’s taken over from Minerva as Head of Gryffindor, and Nikola’s just been made Head of Slytherin. She’d laughed when she’d heard that. Their rivalry as students had been bad enough. James is her second-in-command at the Ministry and Nigel… well, it’s probably best that she doesn’t know where Nigel is. It’s going to be very awkward when he ends up in front of the Wizengamot one day. _That bloody cloak_.

Not for the first time, Helen wonders if Ashley’s rebelling because of the divorce. It’s been hard on her, she knows. And it can’t be easy having John as her head of house. They’re so very alike.

A cheer goes up from the crowd. One of the Gryffindor chasers has got the quaffle and is weaving her way towards the goalposts. She ducks and spins avoiding no less than two well-aimed bludgers before reaching her target. When she does, she feints right sending the goalkeeper in the wrong direction as she scores to the left. _Very well done_ , Helen thinks.

“AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!”

Helen’s foster son’s voice booms across the stadium.

“TEN POINTS FOR THE TEAM IN RED AND GOLD! FREELANDER WITH THE QUAFFLE.”

There’s cheering and whooping from the Gryffindor stand. One of the Slytherin beaters is obviously unhappy about Ms Freelander’s goal, though, and he rams into her with his broom. Thankfully, the young woman manages to remain upright. She really is very good.

“DUDE, SERIOUSLY? WHAT A JACKASS!”

“Mr Foss!” Minerva calls, “I’ll thank you to keep personal comments to yourself, young man!”

“Sorry, Professor.”

Helen has to work very hard to stifle her smile. Next to her, she feels Professor Benoit chuckle.

“So you don’t like flying at all, Minister?”

Helen turns to look at the younger witch. “Please,” she says, “call me Helen.”

The Professor looks uncertain, so Helen clarifies, “Unless we’re in public, of course.”

Best to get these things out of the way. Her companion nods her understanding.

“Call me Charlotte,” she pauses, and her eyes take on a mischievous glint, “Unless, we’re in public, of course.”

“Of course,” Helen intones with mock seriousness. They laugh. And for one unexpected moment, Helen finds herself gazing into the young witch’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, what was the question?”

“Uh…” Charlotte blinks. Helen bites her lip, cheeks flushing slightly.

The younger woman seems to compose herself. “Is it the flying you don’t like?”

Helen pauses, as though considering. Charlotte’s looking adorably flustered.

“On the contrary,” Helen shakes her head, she likes a fast broomstick as much as the next witch, ”I do miss the flying carpet, though. Much more civilised,” she lowers her voice so only Charlotte can hear, “and much more romantic.”

Inwardly, Helen cringes. She can’t believe she said that. It’s the kind of chat up line her father probably used on her mother years’ ago. But it’s been a very long time since she flirted with a pretty young witch. It’s been a long time since she flirted with anyone, really. And she’s been so preoccupied lately…

When she looks at Charlotte, though, the younger woman is blushing. Perhaps she doesn’t think Helen’s horribly old-fashioned, after all. 

Another cheer goes up from the stadium, this time from the direction of the Slytherin stand.

“MCNULTY SCORES! AND IT’S TEN POINTS ALL ROUND! STILL NO SIGN OF THE GOLDEN SNITCH.”

Helen watches as Nikola punches the air in delight. She doesn’t miss the smug look he directs at John, either. _Honestly_.

The game continues on like that for some time, with one team advancing only to be met point-for-point by the other. Helen feels a burst of pride as she watches how skilled her daughter is on the quidditch pitch. She and Ms Freelander make quite the team.

Unfortunately, though, just as the snitch makes its first appearance, the heavens open. Usually a bit of rain wouldn’t stop the play, but when forks of bright white lightening begin to flash overhead, Rolanda calls a halt to the game. By that point they’re all a little soggy anyway. Umbrella spells only really work if the rain is vertical, and with so many people crowded into the stand, the logistics are tricky.

In any case, the early finish means that Helen finds herself walking back to the castle with Charlotte. And when Charlotte invites her back to her rooms for a hot toddy, she finds herself happily accepting.

“I don’t, uh, usually do this,” Charlotte says, some time later, as she breaks away from their soft kiss.

But the warm amber liquid has made them both bold. Helen brushes an errant curl out of the younger woman’s eye.

“Neither do I,” she smiles, “but I find myself wanting to get to know you better, Charlotte.”

Charlotte grins, and leans in for another, deeper kiss.

This time, no one pulls away.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've loved reading various HP and Sanctuary AUs and seeing what houses authors put the Sanctuary characters in. I've put Helen in Ravenclaw (because of her smarts), and John in Gryffindor (because to me he has that sort of reckless heroism that Gryffindors often display; Ashley's in Gryffindor for the same reason). Nikola's Slytherin (because of his desire for world domination). Kate's also in Gryffindor, because she's brave and kick-ass (and because I wanted an excuse to have her show off her skills on the quidditch pitch).


End file.
